Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Today, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP),
a group of police, prosecutors, judges, and other law enforcement professionals
working to end marijuana prohibition, declared their support for Ohio’s Issue 3,
the proposed constitutional amendment to tax and regulate marijuana in the
state. The law would legalize the production, sale, and adult consumption of
marijuana products in the state and permit licenses for specific distribution
companies. If passed, the law would permit home cultivation of up to four flowering
plants and possession and sharing of up to eight ounces by adults 21 and older
with a valid state license. The new law also protects patients of any age with
a doctor-certified debilitating condition by allowing safe access to regulated marijuana
products.

“Legalization
will take money away from the cartels, provide funding for public safety and
health services, and reduce the violence associated with the illegal drug
market. Passage of Issue Three puts us in charge, not the dealers,” said
Cincinnati Police Captain Howard Rahtz
(Ret.).

Ohio arrested nearly 12,000 adults
for marijuana possession and distribution in 2012. Almost all of those arrests
were for possession alone. While most individuals don’t serve jail time for possession
alone, an arrest is a costly, damaging, and time-consuming ordeal. Marijuana
arrests can cost steep fines, require defendants take time off work for court
appearances, limit job and educational opportunities, and even take away rights
from stable and nurturing parents. The process of an arrest is even more
damaging to those in impoverished communities who often have less freedom with
taking time off work, less cash for unplanned expenses, and fewer opportunities
for economic mobility.

“Regulating marijuana is the only way we can be sure to keep
it out of the hands of criminals, and ultimately, keep our kids and streets
safer,” said Maj. Neill Franklin (Ret.),
executive director for LEAP. “Controlling the drug has always been the goal –
we’ve just been going about it the wrong way for a very long time.”

LEAP joins Issue 3
supporters that include former Cincinnati Police Chief Tom Streicher, the
American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, and the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). Ohio voters will make a decision on November
3rd, 2015.

Washington D.C. – Today, more than 130 top police and
prosecutors from all 50 U.S. states, including LEAP executive director Major
Neill Franklin (Ret.) are holding a conference to launch a new group, Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime
and Incarceration (LELRCI). The group is releasing a report explaining
their mission: to reduce crime and improve public safety by reducing needless
incarceration and harmful mandatory minimum sentences, and improving access to
rehabilitation services for those with mental illnesses and substance abuse
disorders. They propose de-felonizing minor crimes as California has
done with Prop. 47, and ultimately, strengthening
community-police relations.

"As our nation's top police and prosecutors reflect back
on their careers, we have come to understand that many of the so-called
tough-on-crime principles to which many of us gave our lives are flat-out wrong,"
said Major Franklin. "We can reduce crime and incarceration at the same
time, but to do that we need alternatives to arrest, balance in our laws, and
continued improvement in community relations. Law Enforcement Against
Prohibition is honored to be a part of distinguished group."

Unnecessary incarceration taxes public coffers and law
enforcement resources as well as furthering economic and racial inequality and
lessening life opportunities for millions, who become more likely to
re-offend in the future. $80
billion is spent on incarceration in the U.S. every year; a cost
reform advocates say would be better spent on rehabilitation, job training, and
education.Drug laws continue to be a root cause
of mass incarceration and places severe social and economic consequences on
individuals and communities, particularly
those of color. Overly punitive drug enforcement and
the prioritization of drug cases over violent crimes since the drug war began
in 1971 has contributed to the U.S. holding more
prisoners per capita than any other nation.

Please
contact Darby Beck at darby.beck@leap.cc
for a special access code to view the launch event being held at the National
Press Club Wednesday from 12:30-2pm ET.

LEAP is committed to ending decades of failed policy that
have wreaked havoc on public safety, damaged community relations with police,
fostered corruption and racism, and largely ignored the public health crisis of
addiction. The War on Drugs has cost more than $1 trillion dollars, yielded no
positive outcomes, and has ultimately diverted the penal system’s attention
away from more important crimes.

“In an
age of intense partisan conflict, it’s heartening to see lawmakers across the
spectrum working together on restoring justice in this country,” said Maj. Neill Franklin (Ret.),
executive director for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a
group of criminal justice professionals working to end the drug war. “We could
reduce the impact that drug prohibition has on people of color and for so many
others who have been victims of unreasonable and ineffective drug prohibition
laws. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but this is a considerable step in
the right direction.”

The new
bill would also retroactively apply the
Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 to offenders currently serving unduly long sentences
for crack cocaine. Through the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, harsh federal
mandatory minimum sentences were instituted to deter drug use in an era of
“tough on crime” mentality, but have recently come under fire by both the left
and right for being excessively punitive, ballooning the American prison
population, costing taxpayers billions, ignoring real solutions to drug abuse,
and fostering racially biased enforcement practices. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act
imposed a penalty for crack cocaine possession and distribution one
hundred times more
severe than the punishment for powder cocaine, despite the drugs being
essentially identical. The ratio was reduced to 18:1 through the Fair Sentencing
Act in 2010, but evidence points to a racially biased sentencing disparity that
has contributed to putting African American men in prison at a rate five times higher than
that of white men and resulted in the U.S. housing more prisoners than any other
nation. The new bill should offer hope for many who have continued to be
unfairly treated by the justice system through arbitrary mandatory minimum laws
even after the reforms of 2010.

Mandatory
minimum laws have also severely limited discretion judges have when deciding
punishment for drug cases. The new bill would offer more leeway in determining
appropriate sentences based on a defendant’s individual circumstances. Other provisions in the
bill include limiting solitary confinement for juveniles in federal facilities
and expanding mandatory minimum categories to include cases such as interstate
domestic violence.

LEAP is
committed to ending decades of failed policy that have wreaked havoc on public
safety, wasted significant law enforcement resources, and largely ignored the
public health crisis of addiction. The drug war has cost nearly two trillion
dollars, yielded only disastrous outcomes, and has ultimately distracted the
justice system from focusing on more important crimes.